Police Cadet stories

* a collection of stories and memories, in no particular order, from the life and times of John Clarke, who served as a policeman in the Australian Police Force, a great practical joker, he also had a great affinity with people and wildlife, was a champion swimmer, snooker player, loved golf, still loves fishing and is also an artist. I hope you enjoy his recollections - cheers, karin (his daughter)

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Recollection 1

"When I was first notified of y success to enter the police cadets, I didn't have much time to get organised.  I had to leave Kandos and get to Sydney in a hurry and in the process, I forgot my Bryl Cream.  Early Monday morning I was expected to meet the Police Officer in Charge of Cadets, and he turned out to be a real bulldog sergeant-major type.  When I arrived he was furious with me, he took one look at the state of my hair, which I had tried with little success, to flatten down with water, but in my rush had gone all fluffy and ordered me back to the bathroom to fix it up... saying what a disgrace I was.  He then ordered me down to "Fingerprints" section, whereupon the man in charge there, sent me to obtain a 'long weight for a typewriter' in another section .  Off I went in hot pursuit of a 'long weight'.  On arrival in the appropriate section, I asked the man in charge for a 'long weight for a typewriter', he gave me a casual glance and said, 'Okay, if you'd like to wait over there please'...off I went, 2 hours later, it occurred to me that I'd just had a 'long wait'!

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Recollection 2

On another occasion, I had gone home to Kandos for the long weekend and myself and a number of other police cadets were on our way back for roll call.  We were all on the tram, where we would put our large bags at the rear (near where the alternate drive controls were situated)...on getting off the bus in our hurry to be at roll call, I realised I'd left my bag on the tram...I ran and ran, and finally caught up with the tram, retrieved my bag, etc...meanwhile, the lads were practically wetting themselves laughing at the site of me...next thing one of the other cadets, races past me after the tram, he'd just realised he forgot his bag too.  But in his case, it had far more serious consequences!  We all, bar him, made it back to roll call in time.  On this poor unfortunate chap's arrival, the Sergeant made him run around the track 40 times, with his large bag!